Being the boyfriend of a journalist certainly has its perks, as I discovered last weekend when we were given the opportunity to take a VW Camper van for a spin, courtesy of the nice folks at The Bristol Camper Company. We’ve long played with the idea of buying a camper van, and this would be the ideal chance to drive one for the weekend, and also put my on the road cooking skills to the test!
Before being allowed to drive away we were given a thorough tour of the van and shown how to operate everything, including the gas stove, grill, sink, rock and roll bed and push up top, which I was thankful for, as it meant I could stand up whilst cooking! We were assured that, even though we drive an automatic car, we’d feel at home driving the van after five minutes. After a quick test drive around a field we set off on our trip, sun blazing and music playing.
The plan was to drive through parts of Somerset, collecting local food and drink and then head for Putsborough sands, where we’d park up for the night, cook dinner and enjoy the beach and sunset.
We soon found, with a top speed of 50mph, this was going to take a long time, but the whole point of the trip was to take it easy, chill out, enjoy the views and visit some places we’d never been to before.
The first stop was local legend Roger Wilkin’s Cider Farm, which is known to produce some of the best cider in the area. After getting a little lost we distubed an old farmer tending to his verges, who in a thick West country accent told us to
droive down thee ill, over tha crossin’, take ya second left, next roight, un keep on goin’ till ya hit lands end
We drove off with a smile, through the narrow lanes, until we arrived at the farm. The old man was right! Judging by the amount of cars parked, it was clearly a popular destination and attracted a lot of the locals, keen to fill their personal gallon containers. We stumbled into the barn where queues of regulars were sampling the cider from giant barrels. We asked to try some medium cider, which was made up of two parts dry, and one part sweet! Guess that makes sense really? It was cold, sweet, instantly refreshing and possibly some of the nicest cider I’ve ever tasted. We bought two litres, declined on offers of more samples, and jumped back in the van.
We were now getting hungry. Next stop…farm shop!
Continue reading Yum in the sun : Part 2…
Taste Britain
Yum in the sun: Part 2
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